


days are good

by mildlydiscouraging



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: "Camping", 2012, Domestic Fluff, M/M, Pop Culture, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-17
Updated: 2015-06-17
Packaged: 2018-04-04 19:34:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 6,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4150194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mildlydiscouraging/pseuds/mildlydiscouraging
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a series of drabbles (+ longer, oops) based on <a href="http://moonfullofstars.tumblr.com/post/120790797978/">this</a> set of au's.</p><p>contains the following: fluff about nerds in love, sickeningly casual physical affection, a dash of angst, and a <i>lot</i> of pop culture references.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. and beyond

**Author's Note:**

> title from "[bright](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMAzstG5O7E)" by echosmith
> 
> i can tell you this much: a lot of this i wrote and then immediately went yIKES, it was so disgustingly sappy and cute. that's what this fic is like. i am so sorry.
> 
> (also, the chapters r in chronological order, not the order of the prompt post, but i've put the prompts in the chapter summaries)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "we’re watching toy story three and we can’t stop crying"

“Why on Earth did we think this would be a good idea?”

Phil doesn’t respond, too busy wiping his eyes with the edge of their shared blanket. On the screen Woody and the gang are inching closer and closer to the incinerator. Phil reaches out to grab Dan’s hand, knowing full well what comes next.

“Seriously, this is the worst idea we’ve ever had,” Dan squeezes back just as head, “and this isn’t even the worst part.”

Instead of replying, Phil hides his face in Dan’s neck. The glow of the TV in the otherwise dark room still makes it to his eyes, but at least this way he doesn’t have to actually watch.

Woody is saying something about friendship and Dan is trying to make sure he doesn’t cry directly onto Phil’s head. He only breathes normally again when there’s a brief lull in the sadness and nostalgia, watching as the aliens lift the group of toys out of the flames.

“This was bad enough in the theater full of other people crying,” Phil remarks, turning his head to the side to watch the movie again, “but now I just kind of feel stupid.”

“At least we’re being stupid together?” Dan offers. He wraps an arm around Phil’s shoulder and pulls the blanket closer as the toys return home.

“Shit, here it comes.”

Dan turns up the volume and Phil grabs the tissue box beside him.


	2. what's mine is yours

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "we’re moving in together… now what are we going to do with all of these duplicate copies of books, movies, video games, etc. that we have?"

“WALL·E?” “Check.”

Dan sighs and throws the more battered copy over his shoulder and into the quickly filling box. They’d only been unpacking for five minutes and already they’d halved the amount of DVDs they owned.

“How did this even happen?” Dan asks as Phil goes back to rummaging through the poorly-packed box next to him. “I mean, we’ve already been living together for a year, how did we not realize how many duplicates we have?”

“X-Files?”

“I’ve only got the first two seasons.”

“I’ve got four and five.” Phil takes the cases and puts them on a much smaller pile on the sofa as Dan adds it to the list he’s been making.

“It’s probably because they were more spread out,” Phil muses, “Like, your copies went straight to your room, mine were already out by the TV, we never really thought twice.”

Dan nods, taking the spare copy of Avatar that Phil passes him.

“This one doesn’t even make sense,” he remarks, “I didn’t get this until after we moved in together.”

“Christmas present?” Phil dumps the rest of the box’s contents onto the rug and quickly sifts through the rest of the discs.

Pulling out the rest of the duplicates (and a triplicate?), he passes Dan the empty box and says, “I guess that’s a drawback of dating someone with the same taste in, well,  _everything_ as you.”

He checks “movies” off their to-do list as he continues, “Think of how much money we can make selling all these back, though. Okay, next is music.”

Dan groans and throws himself backwards onto the floor. This was going to be the longest moving day ever.


	3. new septembers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "you found me crying on the kitchen floor in the middle of the night surrounded by a shattered jelly jar"
> 
> (the baby angst one)

He doesn’t mean for it to happen, but then again he never really does. For some reason he finds himself making toast in the middle of the night and he goes to get the fancy jam because he deserves it, but the little glass jar slips from his fingers and shatters against the tile and suddenly he just can’t take it anymore.

He sinks to the floor, barely avoiding the glass shards and sticky jelly around his bare feet, and he can’t help it before he starts crying.

The tears come fast and scalding, like someone turned on the hot water faucet behind both of his eyes, and he can’t seem to stop, doesn’t want to.

Eventually he hears footsteps over the quiet dripping sound of tears on tile. The footsteps backtrack a little, as is their way, and come back with a little broom to brush away the mess and throw it in the bin of the other side of him.

The footsteps sit down, a good foot away but still too close, too warm, too inviting.

“It has to get better than this, doesn’t it?”” His voice is wet and rough with crying, but if he notices, he doesn’t say anything.

Their fingertips meet in the middle, overlapping on the clod floor as he whispers back, “It has to.”

It’s enough of a promise to matter.


	4. to the moon and back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "we spent all our money for the week on one of those inflatable bounce houses and now we can’t afford to eat"

Standing in the middle of Tescos and deliberating between two kinds of cereal, Phil feels his phone buzz in his pocket.

            Dan, 2:37 PM:  _u home soon?_

He quickly texts back “yup” with one hand, the other still holding the cereal boxes.

            Dan, 2:42 PM:  _cool, i have smth to show u when u get back_

It’s intriguing enough to convince him to skip deliberating over juices and hurry back to the apartment.

“Alright, what’s the surprise?” He asks before even closing the door.

Dan hops down the last few stairs, putting the bag of groceries on the bottom step and pulling Phil back out the door. Down the stairs, he throws open the back door to the garden, a tiny patch of grass that they shared with the other tenants but, if they’re being honest, they hardly ever use.

“I was just scrolling down Twitter,” Dan tries to explain as Phil stands speechless in the doorway, “and I saw this ad and I knew I shouldn’t have, but it was so  _easy_  and we’ve both been so  _stressed_  lately, and I just-”

“You bought a bouncy castle?” Phil interrupts.

“Rented,” Dan half-heartedly corrects, “There was a sale and the delivery people were really efficient and now we have a bouncy castle. For the next twenty-four hours.”

It takes up pretty much the entire yard, leaving only a strip of grass between the base of it and the door, and it’s at least as tall as the windows on the second floor.

Phil goes to sit down in the opening, bouncing up and down a little as he says, “The neighbours are totally going to hate us for this.”

“I see it as payback,” Dan sits down next to him, “for all the loud sex noises and awkward hallway encounters.”

“If they didn’t already think of us as the kids of the building, they will now.”

“Yeah. Also, we should probably go put away the groceries now because we won’t be able to afford more for about another week.”

Phil lies back on the inflated vinyl. Abode him the sky is slowly fading from foggy purple to foggy dark blue. He nods thoughtfully as he says, “One question: can we sleep out here tonight?”

Throwing himself backwards, Dan causes them both to bounce up and down a little bit. “Hell yeah.”

“Alright then, let’s do this.”

Dan rolls over, lying on top of Phil, and the happy look of relief on his face is all Phil needs as he wraps an arm around him and kisses his forehead. Although they should probably go put away the groceries, they were gonna need them.


	5. hopes and expectations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "i surprised you with tickets to see our favorite band… _what do you mean you surprised me with tickets to see them too_?"

Before Dan can even close the door behind him, Phil grabs his hand and drags him into the hotel room.

“Woah, okay,” Dan lets himself be led over to the bed and sat down, “I’ve only been gone for ten minutes and I didn’t even get lost this time, what’s up?”

“I have something very exciting to show you,” Phil says, one hand behind his back and the other waving around around animatedly, “and I was gonna wait for tomorrow, but I just can’t hold it in any longer.”

He doesn’t say anything for a while, prompting Dan to raise an expectant eyebrow and gesture for him to continues.

“Oh, I was waiting for you to ask what it was.”

“What is it then?”

Phil pulls out an envelope from behind his back and proudly holds it up for Dan to see.

“Concert tickets?” Dan takes the envelope and opens it up. “For  _Muse_?”

“Yes!” Phil exclaims, “I got them a couple weeks ago and I was waiting til tomorrow to give them to you, but-”

“Shit.”

“What?” Phil stops flailing as Dan gets up and opens his suitcase. That wasn’t quite the reaction he was expecting.

“What?” He repeats, more of a statement than a question this time, and Dan pulls a similar looking envelope out of the inside pocket.

“Shit,” Phil echoes.

“Yeah,” Dan crosses the room again and hands them to Phil, “They came in the mail about a month ago and I’ve been hiding them in there ever since. I’m a way better secret keeper than you are.”

Comparing the tickets, Phil is a bit disappointed to find that Dan’s are for way better seats than his.

“Great minds think alike?” He offers, “I guess we could resell the extras. But this was supposed to be your early birthday present!”

Taking the extra set from him, Dan laughs and wraps his arms around Phil’s waist. As Phil’s hands come up to rest on his arms, he says, “It’s the thought that counts. Too bad my thought was way better.”

He pulls away, laughing as Phil lets out an exasperated huff and hits him on the arm.


	6. fault

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "we’re arguing over who shot first (it was definitely han)"

“We have this conversation at least once a year and it always ends up in the same place: Han shot first, but only in the original.”

Dan throws his hands up, kicking his legs out at Phil from the opposite side of the sofa. One minute they’d been just browsing the internet and quietly enjoying each other’s company, the next they’d been sucked back into the same debate again.

Phil pushes his feet away twice before giving in and letting Dan rest them in his lap.

“It shouldn’t even be an argument,” Dan says, “Han is the only one who shot in the first place.”

It’s Phil’s turn to look disbelieving, muttering something under his breath. “You can’t just ignore the rest of the canon like that. The re-releases are just as important as the original film and they  _clearly_ show-”

“No way are they ‘just as important’, are you kidding me?” Dan interrupts, louder than before, “The 1977  _original release_  is the only edition important or even _relevant_ to this conversation. If you take into account almost any of the changes it completely destroys his character arc and development from morally ambiguous anti-hero to chaotic good hero.”

Phil sighs and pushes his hair off his forehead.

“We’re going to watch them all again, aren’t we?”

“I’ll go make the popcorn.”


	7. ignite my circuits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "it’s two am but you’re craving cake and we’re both up anyway so let’s bake in our underwear"

It’s a gift, really, to be able to sleep through pretty much anything, like sirens and storms, and Dan is grateful for it (although it’s a bit of a curse when it comes to alarm clocks). But there are some sounds Dan has become conditioned to wake up to, one of them being the sound of someone walking into a glass door.

The squawk of surprise and muffled cursing comes after as Dan sits up and feels around for a shirt on the floor.

“One of these days we’ll have to replace that,” Dan says as he walks into the well-lit room, “Who even puts doors on kitchens anyways?”

Phil only jumps a little in surprise, crouched in front of the open refrigerator door. There’s a pile of food on the floor next to him that Dan almost trips on as he goes to sit down beside him.

“I got hungry,” Phil explains, voice rough with disuse, “and I really wanted cake for some reason, but we don’t have any so I was gonna bake one.”

Milk, flour, eggs...

“Butter,” Dan adds.

“What?”

“As little as I know about baking, I know you’re gonna need butter. Here,” Dan reaches over him into the fridge and pulls out a cold stick of butter.

“We should probably find an actual recipe,” he continues, standing up and offering Phil a hand.

He takes it and lets himself be pulled to his feet. “You’re not gonna question why we’re baking a cake at two in the morning?”

“Nah,” Dan presses his lips to Phil’s forehead before leaning down to turn on the oven, “I’ve given up on making sense of you.”

Phil scrunches up his nose in reply, which quickly dissolves into a yawn as he pulls his phone out of his pyjama pants’ pocket. A few seconds of searching brings up a recipe (hopefully) easy enough for them to handle and he balances his phone against the carton of milk on the counter.

“This is going to end horribly, isn’t it?” Just as he says it, Dan tries to measure out the flour and ends up pouring almost the entire bag out onto the counter. “I’ll take that as a yes then?”

He gets a face full of flour in answer, igniting an all out war. As they continue throwing handfuls of flour at each other, the oven humming in the background, Phil feels the lump of insomnia in his throat melt away.

His feet are freezing against the tile, the cake is probably going to be completely inedible, and he’s going to be exhausted come morning, but between the flour in Dan’s hair, the crater in his cheek, and the laughter behind his eyes more than literally warms him.

There’s flour all over the kitchen and every time he tries to move he starts sliding, but it feels like home.


	8. the height of dishonor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "what do you mean you dropped my signed copy of harry potter in the bathtub"

Ever since Dan had gotten home, Phil has been acting suspiciously nice. From offering to hang up his coat to throwing every Mario Kart race (he could tell the difference between actual and intentional losing) to letting him pick all the pizza toppings.

"Okay," he finally cracks when they're watching TV and Phil immediately cuddles into his side, unusually affectionate even for him, "What'd you do?"

"Why are you always assuming I've done something?" Phil tries to sound affronted, "What if it's just that I'm madly in love you with you?"

"Yeah, right," Dan pulls back enough to look him in the eye, "That definitely explains why you've been acting so nice all afternoon. Some might even say  _too_ nice."

Phil tugs at the drawstrings of Dan's hoodie and if he wasn't so suspicious Dan would be kissing the  _hell_  out of him right now.

“Phil, what did you do?” He repeats, and Phil sighs and looks up at the ceiling.

“So I may have been taking a bath this morning,” he starts, “and I was bored so I brought a book, but then I might’ve... accidentally dropped your signed copy of Deathly Hallows in the bathtub.”

The last part is slurred together in the hope that maybe Dan won’t notice what he’s saying, but to no avail.

“You  _what_?” Dan pulls back so that Phil is no longer leaning on him at all..

“I picked it back up right away!” Phil defends, “But it was kind of too late? It’s been drying in the dishrack all afternoon, that’s why I didn’t want you to go in there earlier.”

In retrospect, that had been suspicious too.

“Why would you even have it in the bath in the first place?” Dan folds his arms, daring him to explain.

“I was bored, I told you-”

“Yeah, but a  _signed Harry Potter book_? Really?”

“I’ll buy you a new one!” Phil promises, “I swear, or I’ll give you mine.”

Dan sighs and smiles wryly. “Aren’t they, like, four hundred pounds?”

“Three hundred eighty-four,” Phil corrects, “I just won’t buy any cool socks for the rest of the year, it’s fine.”

Dan leans over to rest his head on Phil’s shoulder. “You do have too many socks,” he concedes.

Holding his breath, Phil cautiously puts his arm around Dan’s shoulder. They make it another two minutes into the episode before Dan speaks up again.

“Why the signed copy though? Out of all the copies of that book we have in the house, why the most valuable one?”

As Phil starts on about how it was the closest one or something, Dan holds in a silent laugh. Sure, he was a little pissed off that Phil had ruined his book, but he was so eager  to make it up to him that it was kind of worth it just to see how far he would go for Dan.


	9. such a little thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "our families came over for thanksgiving and we decided to watch lord of the rings but you and I kept quoting it and everyone else got so fed up that they left"

It’s the first time they’ve ever had both their families over at once and they officially suck at hosting holiday parties.

“At least it isn’t technically Christmas yet? So we’re not ruining the actual holiday.” Phil rubs Dan’s shoulder comfortingly.

“Stress,” Dan says, “is never limited to one holiday.” He steps away from the dishes he’d been staring at sadly and turns around to rest his head on Phil’s shoulder.

“What are they doing now?”

Phil cranes his neck to see past Dan’s drooping head and into the lounge where all their family was standing around doing...

“Nothing,” he says, “so we should probably think of something to do.”

That’s when Dan comes up with possibly the worst idea ever.

“ _I can avoid being seen if I wish, but to disappear entirely, that is a rare gift_.” Phil says it with an exaggerated leer. A few people had groaned when they put on the movie, but no one really complained and so far it was going well.

It’s only when Dan is the only one who laughs that he notices everyone else has left.

“Phil,” he interrupts him in the middle of another quote, “where did everyone go?”

Phil finally looks away from the movie to see the completely empty room around them. He could’ve sworn the room was full a second ago. As soon as he realizes this, his phone buzzes on the arm of the sofa.

“‘You two seemed wrapped up in your movie’,” he reads aloud, “‘Thought we’d leave you to it. Happy Christmas - Mum’. Oh.”

“That’s a bit awkward,” Dan says, pausing the movie, “Did they really all just leave without us noticing?”

“I guess so,” Phil throws an arm over the back of the sofa.

“Alright,” Dan presses the play button on the remote. Might as well enjoy it if they’re going to get teased for it eventually.


	10. b-a-start

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "i beat you at mario kart and now i’ve been banished to the couch for the night"

The third time it happens, Dan loses it.

“How?!” He almost throws his controller when Phil’s immediate reaction is to laugh hysterically. “You have to be cheating somehow.”

As the leaderboard pops up on the side of the screen, Phil’s Tanooki Mario drives around on his little victory lap.

“What’s it the kids are saying these days?” Phil asks smugly, “Oh yeah: git gud.”

Dan briefly considers throwing the controller at Phil instead before slumping back on the sofa in defeat. “But come on, how did you do it?”

Phil continues preening as the numbers total up and he wins the entire tournament.

“I’ve been practicing,” he explains, “just so I could experience this one moment and  _man_  does it feel good.”

Turning off the TV, Dan makes a face as Phil keeps going on about how great it feels to win and how awesome he was at Mario Kart and “wow, winning is so much fun, isn’t winning fun, Dan? Oh wait...”

He can only stand a few minutes of the gloating before he just shakes his head and leaves the room. And a little later, when Phil goes to get in bed, Dan just shakes his head again.

“Is this really still about me winning?” Phil says. He crosses his arms when Dan spreads out to take up the whole bed.  
“You can go sleep on the couch in the office,” Dan says without even looking up from his laptop, “There’s no room for cheaters in this bed.”

Phil rolls his eyes but concedes, taking his pillow and computer with him to set up camp on the couch. Whatever, he can deal with Dan acting like a baby. It wouldn’t be the first time and it definitely won’t be the last.

The couch wasn’t his first choice (oddly enough that would be the actual bed), but he’d do it just to prove a point. Except, when he goes to lay down, it’s smaller than he expected, and definitely still broken, and as soon as he finds a way to fit both his head and feet he regrets it. But he can’t give in now, it’s become a matter of pride, so he sticks to it.

A few hours later, when Dan comes to get him and they fall onto the bed tangled together, already half asleep, he doesn’t mention how he actually did cheat. The couch was terrible, he doesn’t want to risk it.


	11. i saw (the light) fall into place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "our ac is out and it’s the middle of the summer"

The middle of summer is the worst time to be dating a touchy-feely person. Even a lack of air conditioning won’t deter them from smothering you to death with affection and, namely, heat.

“Get off,” Dan tries for the fifth time that hour to push Phil off him, to no avail. He’s been stuck underneath him pretty much all day. After his shower, he’d gone to get his laptop from the bedroom when Phil had dragged him down onto the bed, saying something about a “cuddle attack”.

That had been three hours ago.

“Phil, come  _on_.” It hadn’t been that bad in the beginning, since Phil had attacked him around the waist and he still had his laptop, but his legs were starting to stick to the comforter and it was gross.

“Cuddles,” Phil clings to his side tighter, now fully awake but still unwilling to move.

“It’s too hot for cuddles,” Dan insists, pulling at the front of his shirt in an attempt to circulate some air, “You know the AC’s broken, why’re you all over me?”

“Love you.”

Dan rolls his eyes and manages to pull away enough to set his laptop on the floor and tug his shirt over his head. He slides down the rumpled bed until he’s face to face with Phil.

“I thought you said it was too hot for cuddles?” He asks, pushing his glasses up on his nose and smiling at him.

Smoothing out the collar of Phil’s worn t-shirt, Dan says nothing and shrugs.

“I’m gonna feel all gross and sweaty anyways,” he explains, “might as well enjoy it.”

At that, Phil props himself up on one elbow and looks down at Dan, eyebrows raised. “What level of enjoyment are we talking about, exactly?” His silhouette blocks out the glaring sun coming through the window behind him. Were Dan prone to poetry, he’d say he looked radiant.

Dan rolls his eyes, but the way he bites his lower lip says he was already thinking about it. When Dan leans back, Phil follows, holding himself up on his elbows over Dan, whose hands come up to tug at the bottom of his shirt.

“Wasn’t  _exactly_  what I had in mind,” he smirks slightly, “but if you’re offering...”

The grin on Phil’s face grows as he leans down to kiss him, trapping the sunlight between them.


	12. have no fear, you were near me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "we decided it would be fun to go camping and now it’s raining and we can’t figure out how to set up the tent"

It had been an attempt to fulfill his resolution of going outside more, although he managed to convince both Phil and himself was still a mystery.

“Okay, so this says you’re supposed to put pole D into hole two?” Phil snickers a little and flips the directions sideways again. “No, yeah, I think that’s it.”

Dan resists the urge to throw himself onto the hard ground. “I can’t believe I’m wearing normal jeans for this.”

“I can’t believe you even own jeans that aren’t skinny,” Phil snorts. For that he gets whacked with one of the poles.

“They’re a relic from a darker time,” Dan says as he turns back to the mess of plastic and metal in front of him, “I’m surprised they still even fit, to be honest.”

“I’ll show you who’s fit,” Phil says idly and ignores Dan’s eyeroll.

The tent is nowhere near close to built and already it’s getting dark. They should’ve left earlier that morning, but Dan had been unwilling to get out of bed and Phil was all too willing to help with that.

“Why didn’t we get one of the easier ones?” He throws the poles on the ground, very close to giving up on the tent completely and just lying the sleeping bag directly on the ground.

Peering closer at the instructions, Phil supplies, “Authentic camping experience.” Maybe he’s been reading them upside down?

Dan opens his mouth to ask who’s stupid idea that was when he feels something cold and wet on the back of his neck. “Wh-?” Another drop hits the plastic in front of him. “Oh no.”

Suddenly it’s raining,  _hard_ , the thin forest around them blurry from the almost torrential raindrops. Dan immediately pulls his hood over his head, the only time his reflexes are actually good, but Phil isn’t so lucky.

“Ah!” He grabs the tent plastic in front of him and crawls inside it. Pulling the nearby backpacks with him, Dan crawls in alongside him, pulling off his hood and shaking out the water that’s gotten in his hair.

“Should’ve seen this coming, tbh,” Dan holds up the tent with one hand to give them room to breathe.. The inside of the tent is freezing, the rain hitting the outside just as cold, and they find themselves huddling in the middle for warmth.

“It’s probably going to be a while,” Phil says, not nearly as casual as he thinks he is, “What’re we supposed to do until then?”

“Really? That’s your idea of seduction?” Dan says it incredulously, but he’s leaning in anyway so Phil counts it as a success.

Once they have to separate to breathe, Phil says, “Worked, didn’t it?”

Dan doesn’t say anything, just leans in again. Some of the rain blows in the open end of the tent and he moves to more fully cover Phil. This was his idea, after all. It’s the least he can do.


	13. your shoulders are frozen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "IF YOU USE UP ALL THE HOT WATER _ONE MORE TIME_ I'M GOING TO BAN YOU TO THE COUCH FOR A MONTH"

It was already Thursday and Dan hadn’t taken a hot shower once that week (and not in a sexually frustrated way). Well, not counting Monday when he’d showered with Phil, but he didn’t get any of the hot water then either (also not in a sexually frustrated way). That had been more enjoyable, but the point still stands: every single morning he’s woken up after Phil and every single time he took a shower it was like standing under an Arctic waterfall.

Thursday was the last straw, however, as he gets get into the bathroom soon enough that the mirror is still clouded up from Phil’s shower but the water is already absolutely freezing. He showers anyway, already committed, but hates every second until he gets out, wraps himself in a towel, and storms into the lounge.

“Phil.”

Immediately Phil recognizes it as Dan’s pissed off voice and tries to hide inconspicuously behind the sofa.

“What are you doing?” The top of Phil’s head appears over the arm of the sofa, eyes wide but trying to look innocent.

“I was just,” Phil flounders, “looking for my socks?”

It’s not an out of the ordinary excuse, but the way he says as a question gives him away.

“Of course,” Dan says, still dripping slightly as he stands in the middle of the room. A puddle starts to slowly form under him on the rug.

“You okay?” Phil asks after a while of Dan just standing there with his arms crossed.

“Stop using all the hot water.” He narrows his eyes. “I love you, but if I have to take one more cold shower, I’m going to push you out the window.”

The rest of Phil’s head pops up over the arm of the sofa. “That’s it?”

Wet hair flopping into his eyes, Dan glares at him and Phil can’t help but think he looks kind of like a cute puppy. A mad one, but a cute puppy nonetheless, what with the frown bordering on pouting and the hair sticking up at the back of his head.

He refrains from mentioning any of this, instead just nodding and watching as Dan walks away, leaving a trail of foot-shaped puddles.


	14. two for joy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "i know you haven’t had the best experience with cats in the past but look at its face please please can we keep it?"

It’s hard to say no to a pouting Phil. It’s even harder to say no to a pouting Phil who is so completely soaked to the bone that he’s shivering,

Of course, it’s hardest when said pouting and shivering Phil was holding an equally cute and wet kitten.

“We can’t keep it,” Dan says as he returns with a pile of towels, “You know we can’t.”

Phil  _knows_  how cute he looks right now, holding the kitten up by his face and snuggling it as he continues to pout.

“Look, your face is already all red,” Dan points out. Dropping some of the towels onto the puddle underneath Phil and the kitten, he uses his feet to mop it up and continues, “Phil, as cute as it if, you’re allergic to cats and we just can’t keep it.”

“Her name is Suzy,” Phil says, “and I rescued her from the gutter in a downpour, Dan, we’re bonded now.” He takes the fluffiest towel and gently wraps Suzy-  _the kitten_ , don’t get attached Dan, in it, sitting down with her on the bottom step.

He doesn’t notice as Dan wraps another one of the towels around his shoulders, still intent on gently drying off Suzy.

“Look at her,” he says as the kitten mewls softly at him, “she’s so cute. I can get allergy medication, plus I acclimate to it pretty quickly. Please, Dan?”

Phil’s hair is sticking up in all sorts of directions and the kitten is trying to paw her way out of the towel nest in his arms.

“Did you at least get the milk?”

“Um...”

Like he said, it’s hard to say no.


	15. can't stand to be apart (aka sickening dependency)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "you had a business trip and i missed you so much that i kind of tore up the house in your absence like a dog with separation anxiety… sorry?"

“What did you do?”

All Phil has said so far was “hello” and already Dan knew something was up.

“What do you mean?” Phil says into the phone. He steadfastly avoids looking directly at the mess in front of him.

“This always happens,” Dan continues over him, “Whenever you’re at home while I’m away, you get restless and end up tearing the entire house apart.”

He kicks a pile of stuff under the sofa. “No.”

“Oh yeah, then get on Skype and prove it.”

Phil distinctly doesn’t say anything for long enough that Dan gives up and sighs, “Tell me it’s at least localized to one room.”

“The lounge, yeah,” Phil starts stacking up all the DVDs he’d already watched, wedging the phone between his shoulder and ear.

“I’ll be home tomorrow, okay?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too, idiot.”


	16. another "x" on the calendar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "we’ve been celebrating our wedding anniversary on the wrong day for the past nine years"

Dan is cleaning out under the bed when he finds it.

“Phil?” He calls down the hall, “When’s our anniversary?”

“2nd of November, right?”

“Not according to this,” he says as he walks out to the kitchen to show Phil what he’s found.

“What do you mean?” Phil looks up from where he’s been diligently (and carefully) chopping up vegetables. Yes they were only for a frozen pizza, but that was basically cooking for him, so he still gets points for being an adult.

In Dan’s hand is a faded and crumpled stack of paper that looks like a calendar.

“26th of October, 2009,” he reads, “It’s covered in a bunch of hearts and what looks like a pretty shit doodle of you six years ago.” The little smudge  _does_ look vaguely like Phil, if he quints his eyes and tilts his head almost ninety degrees.

“Wait,” Phil takes the calendar, looking closer at the box, “You actually wrote down our anniversary on a physical calendar and  _kept it_? That’s so lame.”

The look Dan gives him is a familiar kind of incredulity, the one that says “did you  _really_  just say that?”

“You’re not concerned by the fact that we’ve apparently been celebrating our anniversary on the wrong day for years?” He asks.

Phil shrugs and turns back to his very important chopping. “I mean, the internet still thinks it’s a whole two weeks earlier than it is, what’s one week the other direction?”

Hopping up on the counter, Dan kicks the cabinets below until Phil glares at him.

“It’s just, you would think we’d remember, you know? Something that important...” Dan stares at the calendar next to him. God, his handwriting as even worse back then.

“I’m not actually that surprised. We  _were_  kind of distracted at the time, if I remember correctly,” Dan shoves at Phil’s shoulder and he laughs briefly in return before continuing, “We have three anniversaries now: internet, normal, and forgotten.”

Dan slides off the counter and kisses the side of Phil’s head.

“Right, as long as I get three presents.”

Phil makes a face but shrugs to say he’ll allow it, leaning back as Dan hooks his chin over his shoulder. A few moments of silence pass, Phil continuing with his vegetables and Dan comfortably warm against his back.

“Now can we go back to how you totally had a huge crush on me?”

Dan immediately detaches himself to throw his hands in the air.

“We’ve been together for almost six years,” he exclaims, “of course I did.”

“Aw, that’s embarrassing.”

Taking the calendar with him, Dan rolls his eyes and goes back to his cleaning. Back in the bedroom, he makes sure to safely store it in the box of important papers under the bed. Just in case they needed it again some day.


	17. love is a battlefield

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "i came home to a nerf gun on the front porch and a note that says ‘here is your weapon. i have one too. good luck. xo’"

When Phil comes home that afternoon, there’s a note on the door and a bag hanging on the doorknob.

“‘Here’s your weapon’,” he reads, “‘I have one too. Good luck. xo’.” Underneath is a little drawing of what he thinks is supposed to be Dan smirking at him.

Inside the plastic bag he finds a Nerf gun, fully loaded, that has “Phil” spelled out in stickers on the side. He pulls out his phone to tweet a picture of it first before unlocking the door and carefully inching his way inside.

About two seconds later there’s a faint buzzing sound and a whispered “shit” from the very top of the stairs. Trying to avoid the creaky steps, Phil slowly tiptoes up to the first landing. The door of the office creaks open slightly out of the corner of his eye and he lifts up the plastic gun in defense. He uses it to push open the door and immediately gets a dart to the forehead.

“Aha!” Dan jumps up from behind the armchair in the corner, “I got you, suck it! I totally thought you were gonna find me when my phone went off cuz you tweeted but-” Phil unloads his entire clip into Dan’s chest.

“How dare you,” Dan says as he glares at him.

Phil runs down the stairs, giggling as Dan chases him and hits him a few times in the back with more plastic dart. He manages to get a few stuck to the back of Phil’s shirt as he follows him through pretty much the entire apartment. They keep up the chase for a while, Phil collecting darts as Dan drops him, but eventually they both collapse on the sofa when they officially run out of ammo.

“You make a noble opponent,” Dan says, still breathing heavily from all the exertion. This was too close to exercise, why did he think this was a good idea?

“War is hell,” Phil adds as he props up his feet on the opposite arm of the sofa and leans back against Dan, hand loosely holding his gun dangling over the edge. His face is flushed, hair sticking to his forehead, and Dan can feel his chest expanded with every deep breath he takes.

“Round two?”

Phil quickly stands up and runs upstairs, shouting “I’ll harvest the ammo.”

Dan gets up, albeit a little slower. Round two it is, then.

"You're just trying to distract me from something, aren't you?"

He pauses in the doorway, checking to make sure it's still in his pocket.

"Well it's working."

Slipping his hand into his pocket, Dan fiddles with the ring. There's always round two.

**Author's Note:**

> yikes!! got u there at the end!! surprise proposal fic, damn. i got u good, didnt i? pls say i did.
> 
> anyways so hope u enjoyed, i had a lot of fun writing this in two days while watching the first season of the x-files. bonus points if u get any of my more obscure song lyric titles (serious bonus points since most of them arent even on the internet anywhere)
> 
> tumblr @[dweebhowell](http://dweebhowell.tumblr.com)


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